Hardworkin’ people and we’re gettin’ laughed at for workin’ every day!”: As a Teen Cashier Seeing Food Stamp Use, I Changed My Mind About the Democrat Party Mamaw encouraged me to get...

cold iron Loc: White House

As a Teen Cashier Seeing Food Stamp Use, I Changed My Mind About the Democrat Party
Mamaw encouraged me to get a job—she told me that it would be good for me and that I needed to learn the value of a dollar. When her encouragement fell on deaf ears, she then demanded that I get a job, and so I did, as a cashier at Dillman’s, a local grocery store.

Working as a cashier turned me into an amateur sociologist. A frenetic stress animated so many of our customers. One of our neighbors would walk in and yell at me for the smallest of transgressions—not smiling at her, or bagging the groceries too heavy one day or too light the next. Some came into the store in a hurry, pacing between aisles, looking frantically for a particular item. But others waded through the aisles deliberately, carefully marking each item off of their list.
Some folks purchased a lot of canned and frozen food, while others consistently arrived at the checkout counter with carts piled high with fresh produce.
The more harried a customer, the more they purchased precooked or frozen food, the more likely they were to be poor. And I knew they were poor because of the clothes they wore or because they purchased their food with food stamps. After a few months, I came home and asked Mamaw why only poor people bought baby formula. “Don’t rich people have babies, too?” Mamaw had no answers, and it would be many years before I learned that rich folks are considerably more likely to breast-feed their children.
As my job taught me a little more about America’s class divide, it also imbued me with a bit of resentment, directed toward both the wealthy and my own kind.
The owners of Dillman’s were old-fashioned, so they allowed people with good credit to run grocery tabs, some of which surpassed a thousand dollars. I knew that if any of my relatives walked in and ran up a bill of over a thousand dollars, they’d be asked to pay immediately. I hated the feeling that my boss counted my people as less trustworthy than those who took their groceries home in a Cadillac. But I got over it: One day, I told myself, I’ll have my own d–ned tab.
I also learned how people gamed the welfare system. They’d buy two dozen packs of soda with food stamps and then sell them at a discount for cash. They’d ring up their orders separately, buying food with food stamps, and beer, wine, and cigarettes with cash. They’d regularly go through the checkout line speaking on their cell phones. I could never understand why our lives felt like a struggle while those living off of government largesse enjoyed trinkets that I only dreamed about.
Mamaw listened intently to my experiences at Dillman’s. We began to view much of our fellow working class with mistrust. Most of us were struggling to get by, but we made do, worked hard, and hoped for a better life. But a large minority was content to live off the dole.

Every two weeks, I’d get a small paycheck and notice the line where federal and state income taxes were deducted from my wages. At least as often, our drug-addict neighbor would buy T-bone steaks, which I was too poor to buy for myself but was forced by Uncle Sam to buy for someone else. This was my mindset when I was seventeen, and though I’m far less angry today than I was then, it was my first indication that the policies of Mamaw’s “party of the working man”—the Democrats—weren’t all they were cracked up to be.
Political scientists have spent millions of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the South went from staunchly Democratic to staunchly Republican in less than a generation.
Some blame race relations and the Democratic Party’s embrace of the civil rights movement. Others cite religious faith and the hold that social conservatism has on evangelicals in that region.

A big part of the explanation lies in the fact that many in the white working class saw precisely what I did, working at Dillman’s. As far back as the 1970s, the white working class began to turn to Richard Nixon because of a perception that, as one man put it, government was “payin’ people who are on welfare today doin’ nothin’! They’re laughin’ at our society! And we’re all hardworkin’ people and we’re gettin’ laughed at for workin’ every day!”

kenswalts

Believe it or not Work is it`s on reward

MarvinSussman

cold iron wrote:

As a Teen Cashier Seeing Food Stamp Use, I Changed My Mind About the Democrat Party
Mamaw encouraged me to get a job—she told me that it would be good for me and that I needed to learn the value of a dollar. When her encouragement fell on deaf ears, she then demanded that I get a job, and so I did, as a cashier at Dillman’s, a local grocery store.

Working as a cashier turned me into an amateur sociologist. A frenetic stress animated so many of our customers. One of our neighbors would walk in and yell at me for the smallest of transgressions—not smiling at her, or bagging the groceries too heavy one day or too light the next. Some came into the store in a hurry, pacing between aisles, looking frantically for a particular item. But others waded through the aisles deliberately, carefully marking each item off of their list.
Some folks purchased a lot of canned and frozen food, while others consistently arrived at the checkout counter with carts piled high with fresh produce.
The more harried a customer, the more they purchased precooked or frozen food, the more likely they were to be poor. And I knew they were poor because of the clothes they wore or because they purchased their food with food stamps. After a few months, I came home and asked Mamaw why only poor people bought baby formula. “Don’t rich people have babies, too?” Mamaw had no answers, and it would be many years before I learned that rich folks are considerably more likely to breast-feed their children.
As my job taught me a little more about America’s class divide, it also imbued me with a bit of resentment, directed toward both the wealthy and my own kind.
The owners of Dillman’s were old-fashioned, so they allowed people with good credit to run grocery tabs, some of which surpassed a thousand dollars. I knew that if any of my relatives walked in and ran up a bill of over a thousand dollars, they’d be asked to pay immediately. I hated the feeling that my boss counted my people as less trustworthy than those who took their groceries home in a Cadillac. But I got over it: One day, I told myself, I’ll have my own d–ned tab.
I also learned how people gamed the welfare system. They’d buy two dozen packs of soda with food stamps and then sell them at a discount for cash. They’d ring up their orders separately, buying food with food stamps, and beer, wine, and cigarettes with cash. They’d regularly go through the checkout line speaking on their cell phones. I could never understand why our lives felt like a struggle while those living off of government largesse enjoyed trinkets that I only dreamed about.
Mamaw listened intently to my experiences at Dillman’s. We began to view much of our fellow working class with mistrust. Most of us were struggling to get by, but we made do, worked hard, and hoped for a better life. But a large minority was content to live off the dole.

Every two weeks, I’d get a small paycheck and notice the line where federal and state income taxes were deducted from my wages. At least as often, our drug-addict neighbor would buy T-bone steaks, which I was too poor to buy for myself but was forced by Uncle Sam to buy for someone else. This was my mindset when I was seventeen, and though I’m far less angry today than I was then, it was my first indication that the policies of Mamaw’s “party of the working man”—the Democrats—weren’t all they were cracked up to be.
Political scientists have spent millions of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the South went from staunchly Democratic to staunchly Republican in less than a generation.
Some blame race relations and the Democratic Party’s embrace of the civil rights movement. Others cite religious faith and the hold that social conservatism has on evangelicals in that region.

A big part of the explanation lies in the fact that many in the white working class saw precisely what I did, working at Dillman’s. As far back as the 1970s, the white working class began to turn to Richard Nixon because of a perception that, as one man put it, government was “payin’ people who are on welfare today doin’ nothin’! They’re laughin’ at our society! And we’re all hardworkin’ people and we’re gettin’ laughed at for workin’ every day!”

As a Teen Cashier Seeing Food Stamp Use, I Changed... (show quote)

Does Dillman's hire Black cashiers?

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

We workers are being taken advantage of. Ever been thanked by anyone on government subsistence for busting your ass so they could have more? I believe there should be no government food stamp program or government subsidies for the poor or rich. I'd rather see government stores that only the welfare eligible could shop at with no liquor, beer, or junk food. Got a neighborhood that is government subsidized have some local contractors (huge tax breaks for them) come in and build housing with the peoples help (like the Amish) and teach the ones willing to learn. Don't want to help build your own free house sleep the hell outside. Give 3X the charitable write off for giving that goes directly to helping the disadvantaged. Cut out the middleman. You know that dumbass government worker who gets our tax dollars for saying I don't Know.

cold iron wrote:

As a Teen Cashier Seeing Food Stamp Use, I Changed My Mind About the Democrat Party
Mamaw encouraged me to get a job—she told me that it would be good for me and that I needed to learn the value of a dollar. When her encouragement fell on deaf ears, she then demanded that I get a job, and so I did, as a cashier at Dillman’s, a local grocery store.

Working as a cashier turned me into an amateur sociologist. A frenetic stress animated so many of our customers. One of our neighbors would walk in and yell at me for the smallest of transgressions—not smiling at her, or bagging the groceries too heavy one day or too light the next. Some came into the store in a hurry, pacing between aisles, looking frantically for a particular item. But others waded through the aisles deliberately, carefully marking each item off of their list.
Some folks purchased a lot of canned and frozen food, while others consistently arrived at the checkout counter with carts piled high with fresh produce.
The more harried a customer, the more they purchased precooked or frozen food, the more likely they were to be poor. And I knew they were poor because of the clothes they wore or because they purchased their food with food stamps. After a few months, I came home and asked Mamaw why only poor people bought baby formula. “Don’t rich people have babies, too?” Mamaw had no answers, and it would be many years before I learned that rich folks are considerably more likely to breast-feed their children.
As my job taught me a little more about America’s class divide, it also imbued me with a bit of resentment, directed toward both the wealthy and my own kind.
The owners of Dillman’s were old-fashioned, so they allowed people with good credit to run grocery tabs, some of which surpassed a thousand dollars. I knew that if any of my relatives walked in and ran up a bill of over a thousand dollars, they’d be asked to pay immediately. I hated the feeling that my boss counted my people as less trustworthy than those who took their groceries home in a Cadillac. But I got over it: One day, I told myself, I’ll have my own d–ned tab.
I also learned how people gamed the welfare system. They’d buy two dozen packs of soda with food stamps and then sell them at a discount for cash. They’d ring up their orders separately, buying food with food stamps, and beer, wine, and cigarettes with cash. They’d regularly go through the checkout line speaking on their cell phones. I could never understand why our lives felt like a struggle while those living off of government largesse enjoyed trinkets that I only dreamed about.
Mamaw listened intently to my experiences at Dillman’s. We began to view much of our fellow working class with mistrust. Most of us were struggling to get by, but we made do, worked hard, and hoped for a better life. But a large minority was content to live off the dole.

Every two weeks, I’d get a small paycheck and notice the line where federal and state income taxes were deducted from my wages. At least as often, our drug-addict neighbor would buy T-bone steaks, which I was too poor to buy for myself but was forced by Uncle Sam to buy for someone else. This was my mindset when I was seventeen, and though I’m far less angry today than I was then, it was my first indication that the policies of Mamaw’s “party of the working man”—the Democrats—weren’t all they were cracked up to be.
Political scientists have spent millions of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the South went from staunchly Democratic to staunchly Republican in less than a generation.
Some blame race relations and the Democratic Party’s embrace of the civil rights movement. Others cite religious faith and the hold that social conservatism has on evangelicals in that region.

A big part of the explanation lies in the fact that many in the white working class saw precisely what I did, working at Dillman’s. As far back as the 1970s, the white working class began to turn to Richard Nixon because of a perception that, as one man put it, government was “payin’ people who are on welfare today doin’ nothin’! They’re laughin’ at our society! And we’re all hardworkin’ people and we’re gettin’ laughed at for workin’ every day!”

As a Teen Cashier Seeing Food Stamp Use, I Changed... (show quote)

MarvinSussman

JFlorio wrote:

We workers are being taken advantage of. Ever been... (show quote)

Or you could have a war with a powerful nation, draft everyone who doesn't volunteer, build munition factories, hire every able-bodied civilian, sell them war-bonds to soak up their salaries which cannot buy anything when everything is rationed, and then, when the war is over, they can cash in their bonds and we would have prosperity for 35 years.

It worked during WW II and after. Maybe it will work again.

Or the gummint could just hire contractors to fix the 60,000 bridges that need fixing. And build desalination plants to make our deserts bloom. And, etc., etc.

cold iron Loc: White House

MarvinSussman wrote:

Or you could have a war with a powerful nation, dr... (show quote)

I like the simplicity....HIRE, when I hear that word "with what" pops up in my mind. If you had any smarts you should wonder why are 60,000 bridges in disarray in the first place. ?
Well, that's not your normal train of thinking.

MarvinSussman

cold iron wrote:

I like the simplicity....HIRE, when I hear that word "with what" pops up in my mind. If you had any smarts you should wonder why are 60,000 bridges in disarray in the first place. ?
Well, that's not your normal train of thinking.

You betray your complete ignorance:

US Constitution, Art.I, Section 8: "Congress shall have the power to...coin money..."

There is no specified limit to spending and taxing.

Not spending enough to do what must be done is bad

Spending enough to do what must be done is good.

Too little money in the economy is bad. Enough spending creates enough money.

Too much money in the economy is bad. Enough taxing destroys too much money.

Therefore, spend enough to do what must be done and tax enough to avoid an excessive amount of money in the economy.

Even you should be able to understand simple economics.

cold iron Loc: White House

MarvinSussman wrote:

You betray your complete ignorance: br br US Cons... (show quote)

That is why we are 20 TRILLION in debt fool.

MarvinSussman

cold iron wrote:

That is why we are 20 TRILLION in debt fool.

Not enough taxes, fool!

Learn how to read:

Taxes destroy money. Too much debt implies not enough taxes.

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

He's so smart the rest of us mortals can't comprehend hid economic brilliance. Everyone else is wrong about, debt, growth, taxes, inflation but Marvin and a few other leftwing economists. I believe Marvin used to work for Hugo Chavez.

cold iron wrote:

That is why we are 20 TRILLION in debt fool.

MarvinSussman

JFlorio wrote:

He's so smart the rest of us mortals can't comprehend hid economic brilliance. Everyone else is wrong about, debt, growth, taxes, inflation but Marvin and a few other leftwing economists. I believe Marvin used to work for Hugo Chavez.

You can't attack facts and logic so you attack the person. You are what is wrong with the world in a nutshell. Too many are like you. Take a long walk on a short pier.

JFlorio Loc: Seminole Florida

Kiss my ass you prick elitist. Your logic is only logical to you. What's wrong with the world? Not enough people agree with you. What a snob.

MarvinSussman wrote:

You can't attack facts and logic so you attack the person. You are what is wrong with the world in a nutshell. Too many are like you. Take a long walk on a short pier.

Weewillynobeerspilly Loc: North central Texas

MarvinSussman wrote:

Not enough taxes, fool!

Learn how to read:

Taxes destroy money. Too much debt implies not enough taxes.

Why did too much spending not make your list? If you spend what you do not have, you have debt plain and simple...get it?

Weewillynobeerspilly Loc: North central Texas

MarvinSussman wrote:

Does Dillman's hire Black cashiers?

Did any apply for work there? One must apply before being hired.

MarvinSussman

Weewillynobeerspilly wrote:

Why did too much spending not make your list? If you spend what you do not have, you have debt plain and simple...get it?

For the fedrill gummint, there is no such thing as "do not have". See your Constitution: Art. I, Section 8: "Congress shall have the power to...coin money..."

No limit is specified.

Get it?